Beautiful Aurora Show - August 27 - 28

 

We had a very nice Aurora show last night.  It actually lasted all night.

Here is a brief highlight snippet....

For those interested in seeing the whole show, here is an all night time lapse.

New Camera Installed

I just finished the installation and code modification for the new cam.  It is a live streaming, pan/tilt/zoom IP cam.  This opens up lots of different opportunities.  I have set it up to pan and stop for 20 seconds at each position that the old cams were.  To start the live stream, click on the "Play" button in the middle of the image.  You can stream full screen by clicking on the icon in the lower right hand corner.  It needs to buffer for a few seconds before it provides a solid 1080 high definition video.  You can move the slider at the bottom of the image to go back in time.  Click on "Live" and it brings you back to the current time.  So far I am pleased with the quality and features of this new cam.  I hope you like it.

Some Changes Coming To SkunkBayWeather

I have been using software and cameras that were developed around 2010 to put the three images at the top of my site.  I also use those images for a variety of time lapses and single images to share on social media.  The cameras have been very durable and have reasonable “internet quality”.  The software is developed specifically for these Olympus cameras.  I have been buying these cams on Ebay at a reasonable price.  They are all used.  They can last up to 3-4 million shutter cycles.  They take 3,500 images per day for each cam.  Obviously, I love this package.  I have not been able to find anything that is close to this functionality.  For reference a standard DSLR camera only lasts about 100,000 to 300,000 shutter cycles.

Now for the bad news.   In order for these cameras to work with my software they require a firmware upgrade from the default version.  I just had 2 cams start to fail and ordered a couple more.  When I tried to upgrade the firmware, I found that Olympus has permanently retired this utility.  I can no longer upgrade the firmware.  This makes the cams unusable.  In other words, the 3 cams at the top of my site will no longer be available in the very near future.  Cam 3 is dead, Cam 2 is intermittent and Cam 1 is still functioning.  This is a very sad day for me.

The Canon night cam will still continue to function as usual for the foreseeable future.  It is not affected by this.

I am working on a “Live Streaming” solution as a replacement.  I hope to have this operating soon.

I do want to give a HUGE shout out to Michael McCormack who developed this software years ago (IPTimeLapse.com).  He continues to develop and support software for IP Cams and the Canon package.

The Story Behind SkunkBayWeather Being Shut Down

Here is the story.  This past week we had a Northern Lights show that only happens once in a generation.  It was incredible.  I learned a few things.  On my hit counter I saw 70,000 hits in less than 24 hours.  It was about then that my web host pulled the plug on my site.  No warning.  They just replaced my site with a rude message and no explanation.  They also took away my email.  So, for those who emailed me I had no way to get back to you.  It was then that I found out they no longer have tech support on weekends.  As you can imagine, My frustration level was off the charts.  Getting shut down in the middle of one of the biggest Aurora shows in decades was infuriating.  The next morning through a chat I signed up for a VPS plan.  This more than tripled my hosting fees.  It was the only solution.  It took two days to get my site set up on the new server.

I gave them my backup gmail email address and they started to communicate through that.  They informed me that I had over 339,000 hits in 17 hours and an automated system shut me down.  They also permanently banned me from using a shared server.   I found out that there are several webcam apps that are using my images.  They auto-refresh and each time they do, it is a hit.

The response from the community has been overwhelming.  A very kind community member put up a GoFundMe page to help with these additional expenses.  I have also received some very generous donations via PayPal along with some very kind messages.  This really means a lot to me.

Now, full disclosure,,,,  I have never made a dime from this site,  All of the funds from advertising, donations and consulting fees go directly into my reserve fund.  I report this revenue and pay taxes on it through my business license.  My goal has always been to have the site fund itself.  I funded it out of pocket for many years in the beginning.  These new hosting fees would deplete my reserve fund and I would be back to funding it out of pocket.  So, this new infusion of cash is going to make my reserve fund look much better.

It has been my pleasure to provide this service for the past 18 years.  I am looking forward to continuing this incredibly fun hobby for many years to come.

Somewhat rare March snow events are in the forecast.  Cliff Mass does a great job of sharing some details.

Cliff's Blog - March Snow

 

20 Year Anniversary Of A Monster Storm and the Fishing Vessel Martle Sinking In Skunk Bay

Editors Note:  I have no control over the ads that show on this page....

This year is the 20^th anniversary of a horrific storm that clobbered Northern Puget Sound.  It did serious damage to the Mukilteo Ivars and sank a 60 foot purse seiner off Foulweather Bluff.  The Martle is still at the bottom of Skunk Bay as far as we know. 

This storm came up very fast.  I was on the Edmonds/Kingston ferry coming home from work.  The wind just exploded out of the north and gave us all a good ride on our way to Kingston.  On my drive home to Hansville, the road was littered with debris.  I had a few “religious” moments as the trees were dropping all around me.  The power was out when I got home.  I went in the house to check on things and saw two large fishing boats out front crashing their way through the nasty seas.  I noticed one of the boats seemed to be riding reasonably well and the other was getting slammed.  I watched it bow under to the pilot house and then three quarters of the hull went airborne when it came out of the trough.  I watched it for a minute or two and then went to the back of the house and got the generator going.  By the time I got back inside I checked on the two vessels.  I could only see one.  I grabbed my binoculars and found the second boat….  It was turtled (capsized upside down) off Foulweather Bluff.  I called the Coast Guard and was on the phone with them for about 30 minutes giving them updates. 

There was no local media news coverage at all about this event.  The main coverage was about the damage to Ivars.  I was very disappointed that this wasn’t covered.  I finally found this article that came out 3 years later.  The rescue of the crew of the Martle was a very heroic act of seamanship.  They risked their lives to save that crew.

Here is a link to the story from the Seattle Weekly that gives the details.  It’s a very good read….

https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/wreck-of-the-martle/

 

What I Like About Night Photography

Every morning when I first get up, I let the dog out, make a latte and sit down at my computer.  On a typical night there are 4 computers and 4 cameras running all night.  This time of year there is about 12 hours of darkness.  All of the cameras capture an image about every 30 seconds.  Quick math…  That is 1,440 images per cam per night.  That translates to 5,760 images for all cams combined every night.  It would take forever to look at each individual image.  That’s where time lapse comes in handy.  I make a slow time lapse from each cam at 10 frames per second.  This allows me to see each image rapidly.  I can then back up easily to find anything interesting because there is a date/time stamp on each image.  I have to watch carefully for meteors and fireballs as they only appear for 1/10^th of a second.  Conversely, events like Northern Lights, Noctilucent Clouds, Light Pillars, Comets, etc. are actually easier to see when moving in a time lapse.

Virtually every night there is something interesting to see.  I have to make a judgement opinion of what is “post worthy”.  Right now I actively post on Twitter (X), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.  Occasionally I post here on this “blog” for those who don’t have social media.

I thought I would put together a review of the last couple of nights of captures to share what I see.  First, an aircraft flying over can make an interesting pic.  A lot of the high flying planes are mistakenly identified as meteors.  After years of doing this I can easily tell the difference.  Here is an interesting one from last night.  (Not Post Worthy).

This morning we had a small meteor that I didn’t post.

Yesterday we had a fireball that I did post.  The difference between a fireball and meteor is very subjective.  They are rated by magnitude.  The smaller the number the brighter they are.  Typically the minimum magnitude for a fireball is -4 which is approximately the brightness of Venus.  Here is a fireball from the night before last.

I reported this fireball to the American Meteor Society.  https://www.amsmeteors.org/  They collect all these reports and provide very interesting information.  For example, there were 5 reports of this fireball and they were able to triangulate the path.  It was visible from Nanaimo to Seattle.  Here is their graphic.

We also had a good example of light pillars last night.  These are ice crystals that are refracting light from a source on the ground.  These are NOT Northern Lights.  Here is the example from last night:

All of this happened in the last couple of nights. 

We see Northern Lights frequently on my cams.  Here is a good show from February 27, 2023

Noctilucent Clouds are visible around the Summer Solstice, June through July.  Here is a nice one from 2020.

Lightning storms are always best at night because of the slow shutter speed.  The more the shutter is open, the better chance of capturing a strike.  I have only captured one strike in daylight.  Here is a nice storm from 2019.

Of course there are always the mysteries that are a lot of fun.  This one was good.  It was solved…. Or was it….  Queue the Twilight Zone theme song….

I have only touched on a few of the bigger night topics.  I have left out a lot of events like Comets, Moonrises, Night Virga, MoonBows, house fires on Whidbey, etc.  A lot of interesting stuff happens at night and thankfully my cams run unattended.  I do my best work when I'm sound asleep.... 😁